...not really sure where to put this thread so decided to it can live under the project.MAGE section.

Now that Toni has released WinUAE v3.6.0 with the awesome "boxart" panel, it's probably a good time for me to unleash my collection into the wild (minus any games that I've purchased plus APC&TCP titles).

I've been working on this on / off for 12+ years now. It's mainly a disk-based collection but in the past 2 years I've been adding in:

Custom .HDFs created by me for games that don't run from floppy.

Custom AmigaCD --> HDFs; again created by me.

A few WHDLoad games where major bug fixes over the floppy version has occurred.

Using all my knowledge / reading forums / loads of testing; I feel that all included files are 100% working versions, although obviously I cannot fully guarantee this...

The collection is 6.32GB WinRAR'd and 11.9GB uncompressed. I've also written a nice batch file that does everything for you:

1) Extracts the files from the WinRAR archives to "C:\WinUAE".
2) Removes old and applies the required registry settings.
3) Copies a WinUAE shortcut to your desktop.

ransom1122 has been using this for 2+ years now and commented in another thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Sounds promising DamienD, once the images are done I think it may be time to release your badboy out into the wild.

Your collection is nothing short of superior.

Now people might say; why use so many .ADFs when loading is sooooo much slower than from hard drive? Firstly, I love old school cracktros / trainers. Secondly, this is not really an issue in emulation. You can use the following tricks to eradicate boring loading times:

Set "Floppy Drive Emulation Speed" to "800%" (which works fine for 95% of games).

Toggle "Warp" mode on / off i.e. <End> + <Pause>.

Ok, a few things to note:

All games are configured to be run in "Fullscreen" mode.

60% of the games run in a resolution of "640x480", 40% in "720x576", but keep the original aspect ratio.

"Keyboard Layout B" is set for "Port 2"; obviously if you plug in your joystick / controller and press button one it will swap over. With the second joystick / controller, press the 2nd button to swap over.

I love / use scanlines, these are set at 50% opacity and very rarely 25%.

Onscreen LEDs are turned on so you can see activity.

Also, in some of the <gamedirs> you will find cheats, hints, level codes, manuals, maps, strategies, tips, walkthroughs which have been painstakingly formatted by me to be printer friendly and in a consistent layout / format.

Finally, if you don't like any the above settings it's very easy to change all configurations to suit your needs in a matter of seconds using Notepad++ and "Search" --> "Find in Files". For example:

Well, I would be one of the first to ask once it's "ready". I know it's ready now, but I am never excited about large downloads because I don't just love running 80's and 90's era computers, I live in the 1990s with my internet access being 1 up 3 down DSL. So waiting is OK with me.

...and for people wondering why I just don't upload everything to the EAB File Server.

Simple really, out of 2300 games there are 265 x .IPF files in my collection.

Reason being:

a) Cracks of these games were shite.
b) Cracks were missing important or hacked screens.
c) Cracks are spread over more disks than the original so "disk swapping hell" occurs; I totally understand the reasons why though.

From my perspective, I'm not about to replace these .IPFs with sub-standard .ADFs in my collection...

Anyway; to be totally blunt; I don't really care about the SPS / IPF team anymore... for 15+ years we've abided by your rules and for what???

When's the last time any SPS / IPF member actually visited EAB, let alone answered various questions from numerous people who've submitted dumps / heard nothing back / not received files???

Fact; every single .IPF in my collection is easily obtained from a 3 second Google search (and has been the case for over a decade now) so why should EAB not being able to upload these and be forced to respect your rules for nothing in return???

...not to mention, as the Amiga is getting close to 30 years old now; it's harder and harder for people to actually puchase these original disks. Plus, even if they can at extoronate prices, the chances are that they will be damaged / unreadable or probably modified.

So, well done SPS / IPF team for preserving all these for only your own gratitude / the lucky few / elite!!!

In years to come nobody will actually remember the Amiga or any of these games...

Good job; take these games you've presevered to your grave as opposed to sharing them with the community that matters